costermonger

This is why I'm looking forward to contracts/missions. You can always invent your own missions and constraints, but the addition of the career mode really got me back into the game. If 'land this part on that bumpy rock's equator, on a budget of X' is where these contracts go, I'm going to be a happy individual. I love sandbox games, but they're at their best when they provide you with an objective and then leave you to your own devices.

Yep, same. "What if we tried more power?" Since he started doing this, I religiously go to the What If? page every Tuesday morning when I get to work. Anything that includes the line "You might notice that we’re ignoring the pockets of space between the moles. In a moment, you’ll see why." and makes me laugh knowingly, well.. that's some quality entertainment.

I don't think I'm going to find anything quite as representative as that first gif. Edit: I lied.

There is a mod (probably more than one) that offers larger (and smaller) nuclear engines with roughly equal ISP to the stock nuke. Getting off Kerbin and out to Eeloo's orbit requires slightly less than 7km/s (more than half of that is just to reach LKO) so you'd need to have a reasonably efficient craft with >22km/s as it sits on the pad. I've done that, but never very much more than that. I don't know if you'll ever hit anything.

Moho, Duna and Ike, respectively. Pro: most delta-v efficient lander I've ever built. Con: can't be landed for crap.

I wait for a transfer window on the outbound leg of a trip, but I'm far less concerned with efficiency on the way home (just treat it like an orbital rendezvous, cuz that's what it is) unless I'm low on dv. I've just rebooted my career mode and I'm definitely playing the 'send all the things!' strategy compared to my first go round. Kerbal Alarm Clock is key.

As soon as I mastered orbital rendezvous/docking, basically every mission outside LKO has involved a payload/mission vehicle with a whole slew of support launches. Any given mission takes a while using this approach, but it allows me to get a lot of work done where it is I have gone. Last week I started a lander-probe mission to the mun because I had unlocked a few science parts (I use FASA) since my last landing. Built a 6x symmetry science section and attached it to a ~3,300 d/v lander. This was enough to land, hop to at least one other biome, and then safely return to a parking orbit. Because I'd overdesigned my munar transfer stage, I actually came out ahead and managed to hit three biomes before returning to orbit (was tight enough that I wasn't sure it would be very circular, but it worked out pretty well). Fuel tanker #1 was already waiting in orbit, adjusted/burned/waited as appropriate to dock and refuel. Lander went back down for two more biomes. Back up, tanker #1 had enough fuel to set up another rendezvous and supply the lander with enough gas to go down and hit one last biome. Returned to orbit, rendezvous with tanker #2, refill and head home. Performed soft landing not terribly far from KSC.

This made me giggle.

I played around with the latest FASA pack last night. Built a nice Atlas-D/Agena upper stage vehicle and shot it at the mun. Not at the moon in the sense of orbital transfer, but actually *at* the moon. Started with a Hohmann transfer and then made a series of burns to add velocity and make course corrections. Incidentally, I learned that once your velocity is high enough, even if you are some distance out, the need for course corrections mostly vanishes and you can pour what's left of your delta-v into sheer velocity. I guess this makes sense (you're going to hit the target before the target moves very far), I just hadn't thought of it before. By the time the little Agena was out of fuel (liquid and mono) it was heading for the munar midlands at something in excess of 4700m/s. This might be the best 'don't ask/because I could' game of all time.